The Press., 1887-11-17
- Selected for ThesPress by s. J. Filer.)
 THE FRIENDSHIP OF JESUS CHRIST.
BY R. pERR H. D. nAooRDA1Rr,

. BY R. PERE H. D. LACORDA1RE. '- | FRIENDSHIP is the most perfect of all hn. man affections, because it is the most lln- fettered; the purest, and the deepest. In the parental tie the child has no voice 5 he has chosen neither father nor mother he is born of them without any will Sof his, and, as his young heart expands, it feels 1 the need of some object on whom it may 1 voluntarily bestow itself. If his parents, but too conscious of what is lacking in the most perfect flial love, endeavor toI in- crease his affection by childish indnlgencr, they usually prepare but ingratitude for themselves and if, jealous of thes sacred authority which age and reason confer OH them, they exercise it with tender firm ness, the child, more docile 1t is true, more: subdued and more submissive, acquires a feeling of fear, which, filial though it may be, forms an insuperable barrier to all oneness of sentiment. --9 at -Hs Scarcely arrived. Fat mans estate, the child, even of the most loving mother, de- sires to seperate from her, and to verify these words of Holy Scripture, at once 50 sweet and terrible,''A man shall leave his father and his mother and cleave unto his wife" Surely, then, here, at least, will he find that. liberty of choice which is one of the conditions of love! Far from it. A thousand imperious cIrcumstances designate to man the companion of his life. Birth, fortune, chance, dictate to him at the very moment when the heart alone should command, and, victim crowned with dropping roses, he advances to the altar to promise all, and to give but little. How many nuptials where love is absent How many hearths where indif- ference reigns And, though soul has spoken to soul, and the rare spark of mu- tual affection has lent a fervor to mutual VOWS, what snares in this very happiness, and what heralds of coming decay
 Conjugal love, though strongest of all, possesses a weakness springing from it's very ardor. The senses have their share m this love. Physical beauty plays it's part there, and this beauty, transitory and fragile, cannot, even, while it lasts, always count on retaining it's empire over the heart it has suhjngated. Too. often, even while the worlds admiration continues. it has lost the happiness of it's reign, and the incense of the crowd descendsson atsad and lonely shrine. The lovely brow has lost its charm for it's former worshipper, and a horrible indifference, which one cannot even name, succeeds the rapturous love which promised to be eternal. '>s
 Even if beauty echarms while it lasts, beauty itself decays. Youth, a necessary element in physical beauty, hastens to its term, and art inkvain struggles with mex ornble decayl The husband would fain deceive himself; ; he succeeds while, but the hour arrives when he can no longer dc so, and love, which hung on these delicate features and lovely hues, seeing them nc longer, svanishes gradually away.
 True friendship is not susceptible Ioi this reverse founded on beauty of soul, il has it's source in regions freer, purer, and deeper than those of any otheF.feeling. Il loves not it's birth to physical beauty. Nol | does it arise from contract which unites varying interests, and which sanctions ar altar of which the fire is mingled witt ashes. It owes it's being to spontaneous act of mans free will, and this liberty o l.shoice subsists to the end, nnfettered by laws either human or divine.
 Friendship exists..for itself and by itself Free in its birth, it remains free it's nour ishment is an immaterial conformity o soul, mysterious resemblance ,betwee1 the invisible beauty of each ,abaauty whicl the senses can discern revealed in tn, physiognomy, and which an ever-g r-growin1 etfuslon of confidence manifests more ana more clearly, until in an Hunclouded anC enduring brightness, friendship becomes
 the reciprocal possession of two minds, twt wills, and of two exlstences, free, to sep arate, but separating never. Such an in tel course is untouched by age. E. The sou Is ever young superior to time, she dwell
 in the eternal home of spirits, and inke< though she is to the body that she ami mates, can hold herself aloof from it's weak nesses and its stains. Time and the trial. and events of life do but strengthen friend ship, and the unity of feelings subsistins is but tested by the shocks that might de stroy or affect 1t. AS two rocks, overhang ing the same sea, to the force of, .whicf they offer an unswerving resistance, SC friends behold the wave of time in vain at
 tack the constancy of their hearts. One must live to be sure of being loved. 7
 But is not this dream that depict Is friendship aught else but sublime and iconsoling name? There are mothers who love their sons, there are wives who love their husbands, and imperfect as are these ties, th"y nevertheless exist. Is it SO witt friendship? or Is it not flower of youtf that wlthers before spring-one of those lgolden clouds that herald the approach q day, but never witness it's close? ;:
 For time l believed that youth wal the time of friendship, and that friendshiE herself was but the graceful prelude tt deeper afft ctions. I deceived myself, anC said: youth is too volatile for friendship too changeable in thought and wish-ant can but offer hope. On the other hand mature age is too cold to be susceptible O this noble sentiment; it has other inter ests which occupy and enchain it. I fails in that spontaneous freeness of a sou which the world has not yet claimed, il that trusting spirit which g-bestews if
 treasures so readily, and in that teourag
 which knows no fear! Must I then re tract tue very title of my chapter, and in scribe friendship among the dreams 70 Adams race? The gospel stays me; m own experience does the same. Doubles
 have left on my past road, as desecratet spells, many deceitful affection; I hay, seen wither, in. my heart the ,immateria
 beauty of more than one loved soul; never theless, could as soon doubt religion friendship, and I believe in the affection of man, as believe in the goodness o God. The difference is, that man may de ceive, but God never does; and yet mar is sometimes faithful. and in this he re sembles God. Feeble and fallible, hi lfrieHdship is the more precious for bein, conceived and treasured in aivase so fra I gile. His mind is liable to eeotism, ant yet he loves sincerely he is the denizel of an earthly body, and yet his, love i Duro. he lives hnf a 6av and vat bia Iov